Europe
: In its keynote presentation at the 3GSM Congress in Cannes, T-Mobile
called for a new approach to the challenges and opportunities facing
mobile; pressed for changes to the subsidy model and approach to tariffs;
called for a reduction of roaming rates; gave further details of its
broadband mobile strategy and its strengthened lead in Wi-Fi; announced
new mobile data devices and tariffs; and called for the industry to
align on the growing needs for interoperability and standardisation.

The
myth of mobile maturity: T-Mobile denounced the notion of maturity,
even in voice services. Global mobile users are forecast to double from
1 billion at Cannes last year to 2 billion by end 2005. US customer
growth was around 14% last year. (T-Mobile USA customers increased 32%).
In European countries, penetration is moving beyond 100%. More important,
uses and usage of mobile are immature everywhere, and mobile is just
now entering the broadband revolution.

“We
need to ban the word maturity from the mobile dictionary; but we also
need to adopt a new approach to mobile growth”, said René
Obermann, Chief Executive of T-Mobile.

Change
the subsidy model. Change tariff structures. The need for fairness and
simplicity: The focus of mobile has to shift firmly to encouraging new
uses and new usage, and to building customer loyalty and customer lifetime
value. To do this, mobile should become simpler. Tariffs should be fairer.
Pre-pay subsidy should go. Roaming rates should be simpler and more
attractive.

“We
are at the crossroads between device cost and usage cost. Drop subsidy
and we can cut tariffs. Customers want lower tariffs. They drive usage
and loyalty. Pre-pay subsidy needs to be cut, then removed.

“Roaming
rates today are still perceived by customers as a usage barrier. Last
year, T-Mobile cut the cost of holiday roaming by up to half. We will
extend our leading position with simple, fair transparent and attractive
offers. The whole industry should support this path into the future
and should act now.” said René Obermann.

“Internet
in your Pocket.” “Office in your Pocket.”: T-Mobile
gave further details of its broadband mobile strategy to deliver the
internet to customers, estimating 1 in 5 Western European workers are
already mobile, and citing Analysys’ forecast of total Western
European mobile business data being worth some €1 billion a year
by 2009.

Hamid
Akhavan, Chief Technology Officer of T-Mobile said: “Now there
is no reason why our access to the office information and company IT
infrastructure should be less while on the road. Plus, the convenience
of having the Internet in our pockets will have a bigger positive impact
on our lives than the internet itself has had to date.

“We
as an industry pack more and more features into our phones and launch
more and more services. The problem is most customers don’t know
how to use the features and in many cases are not even aware of the
services.

“Our
approach is simple. Open internet access. Worry free tariffs. Devices
that customers can instantly use, because they’re already familiar
with the operating system - they already use it on their PCs.

“While
mobile voice will remain the “killer application,” our customers
will adopt our mobile data offer for its “killer experience”
– it will offer our customers the same experience as a good DSL
connection they enjoy at home or office, for all their favorite data
needs - e-mail, messaging, real-time multimedia, browsing and downloading.”

2.5G,
3G, Wi-Fi. Integrated network strategy: “3G will become the work-horse
technology of mobile, just as GSM is today. The customers will migrate
to 3G over time, as they did with analogue to digital voice. We will
enhance its speed significantly with HSDPA,” said Hamid.

“The
pace of adoption will grow rapidly. We are planning to double our sales
of data-centric devices and cards in Europe this year, compared to 210,000
last year.”

“Usage
is growing rapidly - 10 terabytes of Wi-Fi data in T-Mobile US this
January alone. This is the equivalent to half of the 24 million volumes
of books, photographs, recordings and other information available at
the United States’ Library of Congress, the largest library in
the world.

And
we are extending beyond airports, hotels, destination spots to trains
- with the introduction of Wi-Fi on trains in the UK.”

The
need for a new approach: “Mobile is changing and T-Mobile is changing,”
said René Obermann. “Through our Save for Growth programme,
we are simplifying our structure and processes; sharpening our focus;
improving our quality and speed to market; and aiming to increase our
operating investment in growth by €500 million a year by the end
of 2006. We will gain competitive advantage.

“We’re
committed to a new approach to mobile both in the voice and the broadband
worlds.”

“All
you can mail” Germany. €15 per month for 2,500 e-mails, 5MB
data. €35 per month for 1,500 e-mails, 3MB data, roaming anywhere
in the world.

All
you can eat Wi-Fi UK. £20 per month + VAT..

The
Click: Boom experience: Hamid Akhavan said: “Our aim is simple.
Always-on, always-available internet access with the fastest possible
response time. The speed you need to match the killer experience of
a fixed broadband connection with wide-area mobility, enabling you to
work the way you do at the office. Minimum clicks. We call that our
Click-Boom Experience.”

Motorola
has today announced the creation of a dedicated 3G mobile phone design
centre in Basingstoke. The company’s mobile devices business will
be deploying existing employees to the centre as well as creating new
engineering and product development jobs.